Less than ten hours remained before the end of the game.
Ye Shu had spent all that time either hunting down specters or on her way to slay them.
While other players cowered from the supernatural and eked out survival on the sly, Ye Shu was either eating, resting, or dispatching the unholy bane haunting this world.
With her peachwood sword, she’d accumulated a tidy sum—several thousand points, at least.
Da Piaoliang patted its round, food-packed belly, casting a look at the pile of ghastly corpses stacked like mountains nearby. Its lips twitched, for in this lifetime it had never eaten so well, to the point of bursting...
Somehow, a video of Ye Shu slashing through the cursed office building—sword in hand—found its way online, instantly igniting a storm of spectators. Players everywhere were in utter disbelief.
“[World Server | An Qi Xia]: Miss, please! She slaughters specters as if chopping cabbages in the field. Are these the same horrors we know? Why are they more docile than my grandma’s chicks?”
“[NoSkinnyNoNameChange]: Holy crap! Is this for real? Took down an intermediate headless ghost in one hit? And there I was last night, hiding under my bed afraid to move. What was the point?”
“[CorianderPlantedWorldwide]: Come on, upstairs, you’re gutless. Can’t believe a grown man is more timid than a little girl.”
“[Great Sakura Country]: Baka! This must be fake. The restroom wraith is a high-level horror—no way this could happen!”
“[World’s Greatest Bangzi Country]: She must be from Bangzi Country! She should serve our nation, wiping out these horrors for us!”
“[WealthBringsFortune]: Shameless Bangzi, you claim everything for yourselves. Want a little manure from my yard while you’re at it?”
“[BillionTeenDreams]: Pretty sure that’s F City in Huaxia. My great-great-grandfather’s family is from there. We don’t deceive our own.”
“[GummyGirl]: I’m from F City myself—I’d know it blindfolded. Lived here thirty years, could never mistake my hometown!”
...
While online fandom was ablaze, Ye Shu herself knew nothing of it.
The NPCs trapped on Miller Star found renewed hope, while the players speculated in secret about the tool Ye Shu wielded.
Her black hair was tied in a tidy ponytail, blue-gray track jacket soaked in spectral blood. A vivid smear of red marked her wrist, but most of her face was still obscured, revealing only those cool, distant eyes.
Government officials stared at the footage, trading glances—they never imagined that someone like her could come from the abandoned F City. Orders went out to track her down, but after Ye Shu left, the game reclaimed player permissions. In layman's terms, she no longer existed in their records.
Less than a dozen minutes remained before the game ended.
Ye Shu washed away the clinging blood, ate a hearty meal. As the hot broth flowed down her throat, exhaustion seemed to melt away.
Da Piaoliang sat in front of her, licking blood-matted fur. Suddenly, the little black cat bristled—fur standing on end like a tiny lion—as it stared at the sealed iron door.
Damn, it was that misfortune-bringer again!
Ye Shu had always known why this particular specter hounded her relentlessly. No matter how often she dodged it, it would always find her.
The moment the iron door was torn open, she scooped up the black cat and ran.
She jumped into the small pickup, yanked the parking brake, slammed the gas, and roared off in a cloud of dust.
“Found you... found you...”
The male specter’s eyes were lifeless, voice repeating those words like a broken machine.
Ye Shu eyed the rearview mirror—the horror looked certain of its victory, no rush at all. Fuming, she cursed under her breath with choice Huaxia invective.
“Da Piaoliang, can you take out that specter?” she ventured, pressing the accelerator to its limits.
Da Piaoliang’s eyes widened in shock. One paw pointed at itself, as if to say, 'Me? Alone?'
Ye Shu didn’t know the hierarchy among the supernatural, but Da Piaoliang, being one of their own, knew all too well. To put it bluntly, not even ten of it could rival the subway wraith.
Pure dominance; just approaching the subway specter was enough to stifle every breath.
The black kitten cocked its head, seemingly baffled as to how Ye Shu managed to provoke this abomination.
Maybe that look was just too dramatic—or maybe Ye Shu had become fluent in feline. Either way, she understood. It wasn’t by choice; being dumped in the subway at the start, survival itself had been a miracle.
She sped away, putting distance between herself and the threat—though her heart was a tangled mess.
If she had a choice, she’d wish never to lay eyes on that thing again.
“Meow, meow, meow~”
A single plaintive cat's call snapped her back to reality.
She checked the mirror—a tiny black dot raced toward her, unmistakably the specter out for her blood.
Five minutes to the game’s end.
Ye Shu’s heart hammered in her chest. She gunned the pickup to the max, but the male horror closed the gap with preternatural speed. In less than a minute, he was running neck-and-neck with the truck, malevolent eyes meeting hers in the mirror, lips curling in a sly grin.
“Cao!!”
He was toying with her—playing with his food.
The specter's twisted body sprouted a tendril that latched onto the roof of the pickup. The metal barely lasted two seconds before being shredded to pieces.
“Found you... mmph—”
Ye Shu jammed Pang Pangzi's abandoned shoe into the specter’s gaping maw. The stench of sweat staggered the horror for a split second, its fathomless eyes staring across at her in bewilderment.
She seized the chance—leaping from the vehicle, covering her head, rolling across the ground. No hesitation, she sprinted towards the distant woods.
The truck spun out, crashing into a bridge with a thunderous blast. Flames shot sky-high, black smoke coiling above like a serpent.
Ye Shu had known this specter would come for her, had laid all possible plans. She couldn’t destroy it—but she could delay it a little longer.
Just two minutes left.
The male specter gagged, fingers crushing the shoe into dust. His eyes brewed a storm, now far less cordial as they bored into Ye Shu.
He stalked closer. Ye Shu spun suddenly, splashing half a bottle of diluted dog’s blood onto him.
Dog’s blood was devastating to lesser specters.
But to him, it was a trifle, barely an irritation.
Her move landed little harm, but much insult.
The horror glanced at the red blood staining his body with utter disgust, rage simmering in his gaze.
As he faltered, Ye Shu gripped her sword, the blood from her palm surging, empowering the peachwood blade with a blood-red glow. She plunged it into the specter's chest—jet-black blood spraying across her face.
But in an instant, the gash closed, knitting together before her eyes.
Ye Shu threw out a few cinnabar talismans, buying herself a dozen seconds—ducking attacks, and landing a few more blows for good measure.
The peachwood sword was unbeatable against minor horrors, but each strike cost her ten percent of its endurance. Now, barely ten percent remained, and she was down to two cinnabar talismans.
Her stamina was spent. In a moment’s lapse, the specter’s jaws clamped down, nearly severing her arm. Blinding pain tore through her, as if knives pressed into every nerve.
The specter’s patience snapped—it lunged, sawlike fangs aiming to finish its prey.
Ha! She’d exhausted every trick, but still couldn’t escape?
She… was really going to die…
It was unbearable. Utterly, maddeningly unfair.
Ye Shu shut her eyes in despair—when a shrill scream jolted her from the edge.
She saw the horror’s claws impale the tiny black cat—those beautiful green eyes losing all their light.
He tossed the limp feline to the ground like discarded trash.
Ye Shu stared in disbelief, clutching the little black cat’s body—at first disbelieving, then laughing with an edge of madness, pain forgotten. In a frenzy, she seized her blade and drove it once more into the heart of the monster—
But before the fangs could tear into her, the game’s system chimed aloud—
[Congratulations to player Ye Shu for surviving ten days!!]
[Congratulations on completing the hidden quest—‘Paper Bride.’ Reward: Double bonus points!]
[Grade: SS level]
[World departure successful!!]
[Cleared players in ‘Advent of the Macabre’ instance: 199.]